


The one who shone too brightly

by Hc_messss



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Cheating, Open to Interpretation, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:48:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27230743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hc_messss/pseuds/Hc_messss
Summary: Haechan had been hated by everybody. At the time of his death nobody really cried him, he was after all, for a lot of people, the worst thing that ever happened to the kingdom. His own parents were relieved to know that he no longer breathed and couldn’t harm anyone anymore.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	The one who shone too brightly

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for my english, and I don't really know what this story is about but yeah. Also mention of sex but no description.

Haechan had been hated by everybody. At the time of his death nobody really cried him, he was after all, for a lot of people, the worst thing that ever happened to the kingdom. His own parents were relieved to know that he no longer breathed and couldn’t harm anyone anymore.

He had been raised as the only son of a ducal house. It was true that he had been spoiled since birth but no one saw the problem until it was too late. His parents gave him the name Haechan, in the hope that he would shine brightly in his life and that he would leave a mark on all of the people who would know him. What they didn’t expect was that he would not only shine but als o burn anyone who dared to come near him.

He was beautiful in an unconventional way and his charisma attracted a lot of people at first, until they really saw who he was under all of the makeup and fancy dresses. After witnessing the real Haechan, everybody tried to stay as far away as possible and not many stayed by his side until the end, not even the only person that really mattered to him. Since his birth until the time of his death he had given his heart to one person and only one, in an act so pure that anyone who claimed to know him could not believe it was possible on his part. He had fallen in love with his fiancé at the first meeting, when they were nothing but little toddlers, and since then he tried everything to get his attention.

His fiancé, Mark Lee, was the crown prince of the country and they were tied to each other before their birth. And maybe if fate hadn’t been so hard on Haechan, they would have been married and with time Mark would have seen all the hidden qualities of his betrothed, and he would surely have loved him as dearly as the other had loved him. But that was not the case, because after Mark had turned eleven he had been sent to the royal academy were all of the nobles attended, and he fell in love with an upper classmate who was a count’s son and who had all the qualities that he ever wanted in another person. For Mark falling in love with Jungwoo seemed only natural and in that one year he forgot everything else, namely his own fiancé. 

And maybe it was then that everything changed for the worse for Haechan. The year after, when he himself joined the academy, he was not prepared to see the love of his life completely ignore him and follow behind another boy, as if he was a dog who finally found his long lost master and could no longer go back to the one who fed him all of these years. At first, he was devastated but then he was humiliated. Mark didn’t care about anything else but pleasing his newfound love, and it seemed that he couldn’t remember that they were not alone in the world and that he had a contract connecting him to someone else. As such, Haechan went from the only son of a ducal house and fiancé of the crown prince, to a hindrance and someone who was pitied in front of his face and mocked behind. The first time someone said to him that he would be nothing but a doll on the throne, someone that nobody would ever want and even less his own husband, he lost it and beat him up so bad that he was sure the mother of the imbecile would not be able to recognize him. Of course, they were consequences after it. His parents even came to ask him why he did that, but he didn’t talk, he didn’t want them to pity him like all of the others. Mark never came to see him and ask him why he did that, even thought it was quite strange for the younger to lose that much of his control. He was already known to be a spoiled little boy, but he had never been that violent.

After that first time, the number of his fights only went up. He easily achieved a reputation as someone who you should not cross and most of the students were afraid of him. But he could not let go of his love for Mark and he decided to confront him. One night, he discretely went out of his room, and as he was crossing the garden, he saw something that broke his soul forever. The love of his life was on his knees in front of another boy and he was kissing his hand. He approached the two and the night was dark enough that they didn’t notice him as he slipped behind a tree. He then heard the love confessions the two exchanged, and without any regard to the fiancé of the prince, they proceeded to kiss. Before parting, Mark spoke one last time “I will be yours forever Jungwoo, in this life and all of the others. I promise I will find a way to marry you and only you. In the case I’m forced to marry someone else, know that my heart is yours and so is my body. I love you”. Haechan covered his mouth, not wanting the two to hear his sobs. After hours of crying in the same place, he had enough force to get up and go back to his room.

In the morning the first thing he did was to go meet with Jungwoo. He wanted to talk to the one that had the only thing that he ever wanted, the love of his fiancé. He waited in front of the elder’s classroom and stood his ground even if all of the other students were glaring at him. When the class finished and everybody got out, he saw the other and went directly to talk. What he didn’t consider, is that a lot of people wanted to discredit the ducal house and get on the good side of the prince, and this was the perfect occasion. As he was approaching his fiancé’s lover, someone throw a bucket of water onto him while shouting that he was an evil, jealous witch and that nobody would let him harm Jungwoo. Haechan was stupefied. He didn’t understand what was happening, after regaining some of his senses, he looked up and regretted immediately. Mark had appeared out of nowhere, and he was not even sparring a glance to him as he rushed to Jungwoo’s side, asking him if he was alright and to tell him what he had done to him. Jungwoo was crying as he said nothing happened, and that everybody was here to protect him. Haechan wanted to cry but also laugh at the scene, at Mark and Jungwoo and their cheesiness, at himself and his traitorous heart that wanted nothing but to be comforted by Mark. He could no longer control himself and laughed out loud. It was not a beautiful laugh, but something maniacal. All the others in the room were shocked by the sound and could only look on as he tried to control himself. After his laughter died out, he looked at everyone, one by one, then let his gaze settle on Mark. “I have never in all of my young life, seen something as ridiculous as this. I only wanted to talk to your little lover, to see what could have made you forget years of engagement and to disrespect me, as if we have never been friends. But I see that I’m not welcome here, and so I shall take my leave. But do not forget, Mark Lee, you made me become what I will be next. You were the one who walked on my heart and smashed it with your feet, and I will never forget that”. 

After that, Haechan decided that he would no longer hold back. If people only saw a spoiled, rich boy throwing a tantrum, then he would really become one. If no one wanted to respect him, he would make them respect him even if he had to become a monster for that. He didn’t care anymore. Nobody wanted to love him, well he would become someone that nobody could love.

Only his best friend stayed by his side after that. Renjun was only a servant’s son but he was someone Haechan had relied on all his life. He was his other half, his soulmate in a way that Mark would never be. Renjun came to him when he was three years old, and from then on, the two were never separated. They were not only servant and master but childhood friends and something more, they were brothers who didn’t share the same blood. When no one wanted to stand by Haechan, Renjun did without batting an eyelash. He knew his friend and the reasons that drove him to what he became. And before everything else, he knew that every action taken by Haechan was something he did to retaliate against something that was done against him.

The first time Mark danced with Jungwoo at an official ball, Haechan had lost his virginity to someone else. From that day on, people associated the word slut to the young man name. When Mark took Jungwoo on a vacation, Haechan throw a party were all of the invited had the pleasure to partake in some physical activities. Some rumors said that all of the one hundred people invited had been taken to bed with the crown prince’s fiancé. When Mark advanced to his parents and the noble council, that Haechan was not suited to be his partner in life, the aforementioned visited all of the six other noble houses constituting the council and offered them something that they could never refuse to secure his position. For some, it was riches, for other it was the promise that the future consort of the regent would be indebted to them and for some it was his body that did it.

As he was descending in this road with no return, Haechan constructed a network of people who were afraid or enchanted by him. His partisans were not a lot, but they were powerful, and it was enough for him. For the people he was just an evil witch, a prostitute, someone that was born with everything and was too greedy and egoistical to think beyond his own needs. Nobody, apart from Renjun, saw all the good deeds he had done. It was quite ironical, he was the most hated person in all of the kingdom but at the same time he was behind some of the biggest achievements made by his contemporary. He had financed some of the biggest artists from his time like Ten, the painter or Jisung, the dancer. He had helped them, without looking at their backgrounds, and made their name known and respected by everybody. For all the people he helped, he never asked for a compensation. He was also the one who introduced Johnny to the royal guards and got him to where he was now as their captain. It was unheard of, for a simple mercenary to become the most respected knight of his generation, and a lot of people conveniently forget that it was Haechan who hired him first, and then pushed for him to get into the selective corps. A lot didn’t want him, even the ever-proper crown prince, but now nobody could imagine the guards without their captain. He was also the one behind the recruitment of the royal doctor, Kun, who was nothing but a refugee from another country until he was found by Haechan.

But as every villain in a story, people could not let him be any longer. As the rumours about him become more and more exaggerated, as he became no longer a slut but a murderer and a bully, it was time for him to be slayed by the sword of a hero. But there were not enough evidences to get a jury to agree to the death of the most hated person in the kingdom. So it was decided by some people, who advanced the right of true love and wanted their prince to get his fairytale ending, that it was time for Haechan to go away, somewhere where he would not be able to return. And so they decided that the best end for someone who was born to shine brightly was to be burned to aches. It was a night like all of the other, when they set their plan into action and burned the ducal house to the ground.

At the news of Haechan’s death, the people rejoiced as for the peasants it meant that the evil witch was killed and for the noble, it meant that a powerful house just lost their only successor. The crown prince was finally able to introduce his paramour as his fiancé and everybody forgot about the one that was here before.

Nobody was suspicious of the fact that the night of the fire, there was only Haechan and Renjun in the house. In fact, nobody asked how the few people who decided to assassinate the duke’s son went into the ground of one of the most powerful family in the kingdom without much trouble and then disappeared as if they never existed.

Some years after, when the kingdom will see their prince and his consort engage in a cold war against each other as if they never really knew who the other was and cursing all of the deities that made their wedding possible, they will remember of the young noble who died at the age of eighteen and who loved their prince as naturally as he breathed. When the captain of the royal guard finally gives back his sword to the royal family, everybody tries to stop him but with no luck and they ask him why he is leaving such a post behind, he will say that he only joined the rank because his master wanted him to and he stayed so long, because it was also his wish. When after him, the royal doctor decides to quit the kingdom, and then the most well-known dancer of the continent and the most gifted painter of the century follow as well, they will all remember the young boy who shined too brightly. Finally, the day before his coronation, Mark will go back to see his former fiancé’s home and he will only see a garden full of sunflowers and when he tries to go inside, he will see someone he never thought he would see again. A beautiful boy with sunkissed skin who will look at him and only say “You are always too late, Mark”.


End file.
